Airbags promised to usher in a new generation of restraint systems;​ nevertheless, some Authors described lesions associated to the use of air bags themselves.

Such airbag lesions are described in the literature as facial bruising, corneal abrasions, finger distortions;​ these findings may be rather disturbing for their aesthetic or functional long-term consequences, but they are surely not life-threatening.

This paper describes three crashes involving airbag-equipped cars, in which the driver or the front passenger sustained fatal lesions without intrusion of the passenger compartment. Two fatal cases regard drivers, with immediate or delayed exitus;​ one case regards an unrestrained passenger that was found dead at the scene. Postmortem data were available for two cases and are discussed with concern to the pathogenesis of lesions.

According to the literature and to the dynamic of impacts, there is strong suggestion that the described fatal lesions have been produced by the airbags themselves.

Possible risk factors for out-of-position occupants, as well as issues for smart systems, are discussed.

Standard crash test do not foresee that a vehicle might be decelerating before the impact;​ our experience suggests that also the testing procedures ought to be modified in order to detect chances of out-of-position movements.

Airbag deployment may be dramatically dangerous if the seat belts are not worn. The last assertion is categoric especially for the right passenger, whose body may more easily be displaced within the air bag inflation area during the braking phase that often precedes the impact.